In automatic focusing (AF type) cameras, generally, the distance to a subject to be photographed is measured by triangulation.
In this method, an infrared beam is projected from a light projecting element toward the subject, the reflected light from the subject is received by a light receiving element, and the distance to the subject is calculated on the basis of the point of the light receiving element at which light is received.
In such a method, wherein only one light projecting element is used, however, it is difficult to obtain a correct distance unless the subject to be photographed is positioned at the center of a finder. In view of such circumstances, a so-called multi automatic focusing (multi AF type) range meter is also known (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 87-223734) which uses a plurality of light projecting elements. In this multi AF type range meter, a plurality of subjects distributed in different directions are irradiated by the light projecting elements, the individual distances to the subjects are calculated, and the shortest one among them is chosen as a distance value.
Since a camera including the foregoing conventional multi AF type range meter is forcibly focused to the subject closest thereto, it is inconvenient where the desired subject is not the closest subject to the camera.